Optical ribbon cables are now being contemplated for use in optical communications busses throughout aircraft. The use of optical communications throughout aircraft reduces weight when compared to conventional electrical wiring. Optical ribbon cable is comprised of multiple parallel optical fibers that are held planar to each other, the planar configuration having a common outer sheath for environmental protection. This allows the fibers to be held together reducing the volume and weight of the cable with respect to optical cable made from individually jacketed fibers.
During the development, production and modification of aircraft, it is often required that additional connections must be made to the communication busses that extend throughout the aircraft. When an electrical buss is used, techniques to splice into or reroute the wire of a communication channel of the buss are well developed. Aircraft are now being designed using a fiber optic trunkline usually formed using multi-fiber optical ribbon cable. Unfortunately, after the ribbon cable has been constructed, splicing into or breaking out a fiber from the middle thereof is difficult and labor intensive.
Various solutions that allow after manufacture changes to the configuration of fiber optic cables are shown in the prior art. For example, Brown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,902,786 discloses an optical access coupler. Nolf, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,068 disclose a technique for protecting an optical fiber breakout one fiber at a time. Hogan, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,467 disclose a cabinet in which optical fibers can be interconnected. Balow, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,082 disclose a fiber optic patch panel. Bullock, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,338 show a low profile cable having component breakouts there along. Karon in U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,502 shows a harness to support breakouts in a fiber optic cable. Dietz, Jr., et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,503 disclose an optical patch panel wherein the connection between optical fibers can be switched. Korkowski, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,875 show a fiber optic connector module, which has beam splitters incorporated therein.
Renichi Wuguchi, et al. in Japanese application 61-283669 published Oct. 20, 1988 disclose a fiber optic breakout box with a pair of optical line connectors and a breakout connector mounted thereto for connection to external optical cables. Optical patch cords having connectors on the opposite ends thereof, are used inside the box to make or break connections between the line connectors and the breakout connector to establish the desired optical circuits and to allow the connections to be modified in the field.
As mentioned above, a major disadvantage of ribbon cable is that once it is constructed, it is very difficult to tap into an individual fiber or provide a ribbon cable connector that can provide connection to individually jacketed fibers. Berg Electronics, Inc. sells a specially designed high temperature fanout cable that is formed into a ribbon cable on one end and consists of individually jacked fibers on the other, but without additional structure, it is not reliable in an aircraft environment.